Kanye West Archive

Wow. On paper, Pusha T’s next LP, Fear of God II: Let Us Pray (due November 8th) is totally killer. First of all, we’re relieved to see that banger, “Trouble on My Mind (f. Tyler the Creator)” made the tracklist (we hate it when great songs released between albums don’t end up on the next album). Also, browsing through the tracklist (below), you’ll notice a killer lineup of co-conspirators. Joining Tyler the Creator on Fear of God II is Kanye West, Jeezy, 50 Cent, Pharell, Rick Ross and more.

But hey, let’s adjust expectations. Fear of God (free download), released earlier this year, also had strong lineup of contributors (Kanye and Ross among them), but we weren’t too impressed with the end result. Still, based on “Trouble on My Mind”, we’re pretty stoked to dig into Fear of God II.

For most of the past month, The Downcast has been cooking up a list of bands we want to catch at Coachella 201. It’s pretty comprehensive (we listened to songs for every band, looked up live clips for as many as possible). And no, we didn’t intend to share this list. But as we neared completion, we figured, why not? And then decided to writeup some quick descriptions for each band, attach them to the list, and publish them for you.

What follows is a list of 50 (out of 180) bands that we’re anxious to see this year. Some bands we’ve seen before, and we can vouch for how killer they are. Others, we’ve added to the list based on our web research and record collections, so we’re really not sure what to expect. Whatever. Here’s the list. We hope it helps.

FRIDAY, APRIL 15

Can’t miss:

Cold Cave: High-charged synthrock with a goth slant to it. These guys deliver a rich wall of sound that will whip you and your friends into a frenzy. New album is killer. Stream it here.

One Day as a Lion: Zac De La Roca (of Rage Against the Machine) fronts this explosive three piece. Hip hop beats, a low-grinding keyboard and wicked rhymes. It’s pretty bad ass. More on these guys in our list of Best 5 Bands You’ll Probably Miss at Coachella.

The Kills: We think their new album, Blood Pressures (released a couple weeks ago) is the best of their career. We’re stoked to see them bring the album to life at the festival, and curious to see what they pull out of the back-catalog.

Unless there’s a conflict with the A-list, we’ll definitely catch:

Ras G: Sample-heavy electronica reminiscent of Madlib.

Goth Trad: Murky, pulsing dubstep. But it’s not going to melt your face off like Skrillex or Excision will on Friday.

Lil B: This Bay Area MC has built a pretty big following producing beats in his bedroom and matching them with his delirious flow, reminiscent of Lil Wayne.

Broken Social Scene: Canadian indie rockers that craft lush, sprawling music covering the range from hi-charged anthems to experimental pop and chill ballads.

Trampled by Turtles: A five-piece bluegrass band from Minnesota. We’re hoping they play the Deliverance song. Yeeee-haw!

CSS: Brazilian indie pop band that covers that hovers in the new wave / synth-rock range.

PJ Harvey: We’ve always had a weak spot for this indie rock queen whose career began in the late eighties. Her new album is pretty strong, too, so we have high hopes for a great show.

Death from Above 1979: This band started a riot at SXSW this year, how can we miss this hard-charging two-piece dance/rock outfit?

Trentmoller: Most of his music is ambient electronic. Super chill. But we’ve heard some remixes that push his sound into house territory. We’re curious to see what he brings to the table at the festival.

Duck Sauce: We usually don’t recommend a band when we’ve only heard one song by them. But “Barbara Streisand” is a pretty cool song that everyone immediately loves when they hear it, so we’re looking forward to a high-energy set.

Pusha T, half of hip-hop duo Clipse, is set to release his solo debut later this year. In the meantime, he’s offering the Fear of God mixtape for free. (Consequence of Sound) We’re a couple songs into it, and so far it’s pretty dope. Download here.

Though you’re probably not familiar with Pusha T or Clipse, they’ve been around since the early 90s. And despite working with producers like The Neptunes and Diddy, they haven’t made much of a commercial impact. But that could change soon. Pusha T recently signed to Kany West’s GOOD Music label, and he’s been a regular on Kanye projects lately (including the GOOD Friday singles and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy).

Fear of God features contributions from an impressive list of hip-hop heavyweights including Kanye, Rick Ross, 50 Cent, Pharell and a bunch of others (Rick Ross’ verse on “I Still Wanna Rock” is particularly bad ass).

Kanye West announced Tyler the Creator’s video for “Yonkers” is the video of the year via his Twitter feed. [Complex] Video of the year? It’s only February. Then again, Kanye didn’t get to where he was without seeing some things before the rest of us do.

We must say, “Yonkers” is pretty cool. It’s a raw dispatch from purgatory complete with blood, vomiting, murky eyeballs and suicide. Gather the family and see for yourself.

Fantasy is a pretty cool album. But that’s it. Not great. Not awesome. Just cool.

We’ll give Fantasy this, it is unpredictable and bold. And there are layers upon layers of interesting sounds, beautiful instrumentation and perfectly tuned beats to examine. But the complete package has a bloated, mediocre feel to it. There aren’t many moments that make you want to kick out your chair and stomp around, waving your hands and rapping (however horribly) along with Kanye. Do you remember what that’s like? Put in Jay-Z’s Black Album. That’s what that’s like. That’s a good feeling. That’s the power of an awesome album.

Kanye is incredibly self-aware, self-critical and self-destructive (good qualities for an artist to have). And he’s a smart guy. But he lacks the epic swagger of Jay-Z or the awesome madness of Lil’ Wayne. Still, he is a gifted producer. But not an amazing producer (he’s not Dr. Dre or J Dilla in their primes). Seriously. How is Fantasy better than The Chronic or The Shining?

Fantasy starts off with a good setup cut, “Dark Fantasy.” But it leads into a snoozer of a tune, “Gorgeous (f. Kid Cudi)”. The next cut, “POWER” has a little strut, but after the setup of “Dark Fantasy”, we need to hear a banger. Maybe the next song? No. “All of the Lights” is a formula radio hit with a curious, over-anxious drum pattern that makes it a little interesting, but still, we need a release for all of the energy built up by the album’s opener and all of those perfect reviews. That’s a lot of pressure for the next song, “Monster”, which kicks ass, but it ain’t Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” (from the Black Album) or J Dilla’s “E=MC2 (f. Common)” (from The Shining).

After “Monster”, the album disintegrates, actually, it expands into something truly overwhelming and dense. It’s piles of echoing strings and synthesizers mixed with bland samples over tepid, occasionally cluttered beats. And the songs are long. Wow. there’s a nine-minute, eight-minute and two six-minute cuts on the second half of the album. The one bright spot is the pounding, gritty “Hell of a Life” which features (a perfectly respectable) ripoff of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” verse melody, which is repurposed as the cut’s chorus.

If you hadn’t read a review of Fantasy, you’d reach the end of the album thinking, “okay, that was pretty cool, but wow, I’m a little worn out.” If you had read a review, you’d probably feel ripped off and wonder how the reviewer still has a job.

But hey, in all fairness, a lot of those reviewers are right a lot of the time. I think they all got swept up in some strange hysteria that was started by whoever the first person was to hand this perfectly average album a perfect score.

Standout tracks: “Monster”, “Power”, “Hell of a Life”

Around the web

“His most maniacally inspired music yet, coasting on heroic levels of dementia, pimping on top of Mount Olympus…. nobody hallway sane could have made this album.” (Rolling Stone, 5/5)

“if the album doesn’t make Kanye any more of a contender for the title of Greatest MC than he was two years ago, it handily confirms that he’s rap’s greatest producer.” (Slant, 5/5)

Over at the Washington Post, they have a list of “highly entertaining festival feuds.” One of them is Kanye West versus Coachella Fans. Apparently, some Coachella fans wanted to boycott the festival since Kanye was selected as one of the headliners (back in 2008 he didn’t go onstage at Bonnaroo until 4:30AM). Among the reasons the Washington Post suggest for the tension are “Racism, Rock-ism, Age-is” –wait. Racism? Seriously?

You’d think the Post would back up that claim with a quote from an angry fan or something, but I read through the article and there was nothing. They may have been referring to another of the festival feuds (like Jay-z vs Glastonbury, Kings of Leon vs. Reading), but again, we couldn’t find any quotes to back up the charge.

Racism?

How about this. Kanye West pisses a lot of people off with the stuff that he says (here’s a list of his “ten stupidest” quotes) and he does some mean things (like the Taylor Swift debacle). And while his music is pretty good, it’s not that great (people would probably rather see a better blockbuster MC like Lil’ Wayne or Drake). Also, maybe Coachella loyalists don’t like the mainstream crowd that comes along with artists that are as huge as Kanye.

We’re not going to pound on Rolling Stone and Spin’s Best Albums of 2010 lists anymore than we already have (you can check out or rant here). But we’re pleased to see other music websites/magazines putting out more inspired summaries of the year in music, 2010. Here are two of those…

Rolling Stone and Spin have released their lists of Best Albums of 2010 (see below). They’re both a major yawn. No surprises. Hardly inspiring. They’re lists of albums that everyone (from congressmen to crossing guards) can like, but few can love.

But hey, we’re not hating on Spin or Rolling Stone. We get it. And you know what? There may be a day when the Downcast’s audience is so vast, and we’re so desperate to make them all happy (because we’re approaching retirement age and totally broke) that we start publishing lists like Rolling Stone or Spin’s. But it is not this day. Stay tuned. Our list is coming.

Rolling stone doesn’t usually hand out perfect 5-star ratings. But they gave Kanye’s new album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”, five stars. Hm. Really? Sometime we at the Downcast wonder if Rolling Stone does this just to A) act like they’re still relevant or B) to wake up audiences and remind them that they’re still around.

Then again, maybe C) the new Kanye is really a perfect, all-time greatest album, right up there with the Rolling Stone’s “Exile on Main Street” and the Stooges “Raw Power” (both of which were also given five stars this year).

We at the Downcast do not have the Kanye album, so we can’t say whether or not it’s worthy. And you know what? We don’t really care. Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover (though we hope we’re wrong, we’d love to add some awesome new hip-hop to our collection). Who knows, if NPR streams is free we might give it a shot.